Daily Independent (Lagos)
Otei Oham, Festus Owete and Adetutu Folasade-Koyi
6 January 2009
Legislators have queried the Interior Ministry for proposing to spend N40 million for this year's National Day celebration which cost only N16 million in 2008.
It also emerged on Monday that Aso Rock, the National Assembly and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) plan spending over N2 billion to buy, maintain and fuel power generators in 2009, perhaps an indication that public supply may not improve this year.
The details are in the budget passed by the Senate on December 17, 2008.
However, the amount may be higher than the one approved by the Senators, as some MDAs did not disclose such expenses under the subhead submitted to the National Assembly.
Many MDAs indicated the expenses under Maintenance of Plant/Generators as well as fuel costs, others grouped it with Miscellaneous Expenses.
Aso Rock will spend N27 million to fuel its generators, and intends to spend N14.3 million to maintain them.
A further break down shows that:
Back on the National Day celebration, members of the House of Representatives Interior Committee told Interior Minister, Godwin Abe, at a meeting that the N40 million voted for it is outrageous, as the ministry also proposes to spend N48 million to maintain vehicles.
And they criticised the ministry for planning to spend N102 million under the subhead of 'Other Miscellaneous.'
The meeting was prelude to today's resumption of the House after the Christmas and New Year break that lasted two weeks.
The priority of the House is to pass its own version of the N2.7 trillion budget presented by President Umaru Yar'Adua.
The Senate, which reconvenes next week, approved the budget before it began its holiday on December 18 last year.
At the meeting of the Interior Committee, where the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Jeff Nwosu, was also in attendance, the lawmakers observed that N102 million was spent out of the N130 million released to the ministry in the 2008 budget.
They advised the ministry to earmark about N20 million for the National Day celebration.
Committee Chairman, Jerry Manwe, asked the officials to return at a later date with the details, including what constitutes 'Other Miscellaneous.'
Nwosu explained that the subhead refers to, among other items, sitting allowance, publicity, medical expenses, welfare, inspection allowance, and media activities.
But the lawmakers countered that the items are already built into other subheads in the budget.
Nwosu told reporters after the meeting that "if we knew what the lawmakers were going to ask us, we would have come with the details.
"It is a matter of getting the information we have. The documents they have was dated September (2008), but we are in 2009 and we have to update our records to December 31."
The Committee also queried the ministry for including the N109 million trapped in AllStates Trust Bank in revenue projection.
It directed the ministry to liaise with Oceanic Bank which acquired AllStates Trust and ensure that the money is retrieved.
Abe said lack of understanding of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) Act posed a major challenge to the ministry last year, but that it would brush up to meet targets this year.
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